After a sluggish nonconference season, Michigan is ready to take on all challengers, waving like a boxer asking for more.

That's the energy eight straight wins, with a perfect conference record, will give a team.

The Wolverines went on the road and took out No.3 Wisconsin in a historic performance and returned home, down a starter (Derrick Walton Jr. out with flu-like symptoms), and still knocked out the nation's No.10 team. No. 21-ranked U-M beat No. 10 Iowa, 75-67, at the Crisler Center, showing confidence and composure.

It helps to have one of the nation's hottest players in sophomore guard Nik Stauskas, who calmly matched his career high with 26 points, but this is about that swagger the Wolverines are all rolling with now, the feeling they can take out anyone.

"Guys are really confident," Stauskas said. "We've got a lot of guys shooting the ball really well and making big shots."

While the wealth spread among the Wolverines (14-4, 6-0 Big Ten), they're following his lead.

From the hand gestures after dropping three-pointers to the and-one sign he made after getting fouled on a made drive, Stauskas is inciting this as he seems to improve every night, showing off even more versatility.

"If we're a little sluggish, I might try to pump us up a little bit and get the crowd into it," he said. "We feed off that kind of stuff."

That worked at home but now a bigger challenge awaits, more than the past eight games.

They'll get that chance on Saturday in East Lansing in the showdown between the Big Ten's two undefeated teams — a titanic battle even this early because everyone in the conference besides Michigan and Michigan State has two losses.

But that story will get its spotlight, with the national television audience and ESPN's "College GameDay" waiting.

Wednesday was about the Wolverines' ability to control a game against another elite team.

On Tuesday, U-M coach John Beilein refused to reveal where he wanted the pace to be for the matchup.

Despite Iowa's early aggression with easy lay-ups from Melsahn Basabe, Michigan got the game just where it wanted, keeping the high-scoring Hawkeyes from pushing the pace.

"I wanted it in the 70s," Beilein said of Iowa, which averaged nearly 87 points per game. "I didn't know if it would get in the 70s. The 80s with them could be tough, just because of their numbers… A guy told me way back when I first started coaching... if you hold them under 70, you usually win. And it works pretty well."

That the Hawkeyes (15-4, 4-2) had it within a possession late was remarkable, considering Aaron White was their only player who scored in a 9-minute second half stretch.

The Wolverines earlier made their big run, stretching the lead to 11, midway through the second half with a burst, then reminding later they can finish.

"That's just having a number of games under out belt and being confident if they make a run, it's not the end of the world, we can make a run back at them," Stauskas said.